Murray outshines Jamaican to reach third round

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Fourth-seeded Andy Murray of  Britain dodged some rain drops and some sizzling serves before  quickly reaching the third round by outshining Jamaican Dustin  Brown 7-5 6-3 6-0 at the U.S. Open yesterday.

Murray ended a briefly rain-delayed opening set against the  123rd-ranked Brown with the first service break coming against  the big-swinging Jamaican in the 12th game. The Scot sailed  through from there with the loss of just three more games.

“I never played against him before so the start of the  match was very interesting,” the 23-year-old Murray told the  Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd after the 85-minute demolition.

“He went for his shots huge, serving big and hitting fun  shots so I was glad to get off in straight sets.”

A short rain delay sent Brown and Murray to the locker room  at 2-1 in favor of Murray during the opening set in the first  taste of some expected bad weather as Hurricane Earl advances  up the U.S. eastern seaboard.

The 6-foot, 5-inch (1.96 metre) Brown, sporting the look of  a beachcomber in a sleeveless white shirt, baggy shorts and  dreadlocks flying, played a slam-bam style with five aces in  the first set.

The games raced by on serve until the German-born Brown  netted a running forehand to hand Murray the first set.

The quick-footed, go-for-broke Brown then began losing the  range on his groundstrokes, spraying errors off both wings and  having his occasional attempts at using drop shots as a change  of pace punished by Murray for winners.

Eventually he was simply worn down by the skillful Murray,  who unleashed 12 aces in the match and 32 winners.

“He’s a shotmaker,” Murray, a U.S. Open runner-up to Roger  Federer two years ago, said about the Jamaican. “He’s obviously  fun to watch.

“He got great support today so it was a good atmosphere and  I enjoyed it.”

Murray will next meet either 25th seed Stanislas Wawrinka  of Switzerland or 51st-ranked Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina.

“I’m going to have to keep playing better, but I served  well today,” said the Scot, aiming for his first slam title and  first by a Briton since Fred Perry won the U.S. Open 74 years  ago.

“It was windy so you just got to try and get on and off the  court as quickly possible and I managed to do that in straight  sets.”